Soyuz MS-03 lifts off

NASA’s Peggy Whitson, who on Thursday (Nov. 17) lifted off on a two-day journey to the space station with cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet of ESA, will set several records during her six-month expedition. In addition to extending her 377-day record for the most time in space by a woman, Whitson will break the 534-day record for time in orbit by an American. She’ll also become the oldest woman to fly into space when she turns 57 in February, and will be the first woman to command the International Space Station twice beginning in March.